CounterCurrents: A Bank Moves In For The Kill On Cashless Farmers

Dear Friend,

"It happens only in India" is a popular dialogue from  a block buster Bollywood movie. While corporates are sitting on a mountain of 'Non Performing Assets' a bank in Marathwada is on an overdrive to recover the  'Non Performing Assets' of cashless farmers badly hit by 'demonetisation', reports well respected journalist P. Saianath. The greatest irony is that the bank does little to recover Rs. 352 crores owed by two sugar factories, meanwhile threatens 20,000 farmers who owe it Rs. 180 crores with public humiliation. 

As the Editor of Countercurrents.org what concerns me most are two issues which can literally wipe out humanity and most of other species from the face of this earth. Climate Change and Resource depletion, especially Peak Oil. What CC tries to do is meticulous report the latest developments in both these fields as well as seek meaningful counter solutions. It is important that we should not fall into despair but act in whatever way possible we can. A perceptive CC reader will find loads of meaningful solution oriented pathways for each of one of us. 

Kim Scipes, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Purdue University writes an solution oriented article "Suggestion For Addressing Climate Change And Other Forms Of Environmental Destruction". It needs closer reading and wider discussion. 

The lovable giraffe, the icononic animal, is facing extinction. Rachel Olivia O'Connor asks "stick your neck out for those giraffes. And for the calves and all of Mother Earth’s lovely creatures; we can do no less, yes? And let’s laugh in lighthearted transformation, as we enjoy moving toward a better way of life. As we take Chicken Little seriously."

Also more stories from around the world.

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In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org





Bank ‘Gandhigiri’, Cashless hara-kiri In Marathwada
by P. Sainath

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/13/bank-gandhigiri-cashless-hara-kiri-in-marathwada/ 

As demonetisation woes deepen, an Osmanabad bank does little to recover Rs. 352 crores owed by two sugar factories, but threatens 20,000 farmers who owe it Rs. 180 crores with public humiliation





#HumansOfDeMonetisedIndia:Muneer, The Shoe Shop Owner

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/13/humansofdemonetisedindiamuneer-the-shoe-shop-owner/

My name is Muneer. I am a shoe shop owner. After the note ban I hardly sell anything. Many shops have closed down. I don’t know how long can I continue. If things persist I too will have to close down.






Suggestion For Addressing Climate Change And Other Forms Of Environmental Destruction
by Kim Scipes 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/13/suggestion-for-addressing-climate-change-and-other-forms-of-environmental-destruction/

The heart of this proposal is a drastic reduction in production, with the accompanying drastic reduction in work required outside of the household.  These ideas would seem to be attainable in any case; if they might help prevent the extinction of the human race, etc., I think they would be overwhelmingly embraced by most Americans and, importantly, most human beings across the planet.  Obviously, much discussion needs to take place, and much tweaking of the proposal done, but I think this is something possible—and a realistic way forward.






Laughing On Behalf Of The Giraffe And The Calf
by Rachel Olivia O'Connor 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/13/laughing-on-behalf-of-the-giraffe-and-the-calf/

Stick your neck out for those giraffes. And for the calves and all of Mother Earth’s lovely creatures; we can do no less, yes? And let’s laugh in lighthearted transformation, as we enjoy moving toward a better way of life. As we take Chicken Little seriously.






Indigenous Rights And The Fight For Life At Standing Rock
by Frank Barat 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/13/indigenous-rights-and-the-fight-for-life-at-standing-rock/

With the announcement that the Dakota Access Pipeline will be re-routed, the water protectors at Standing Rock might have won a battle but they have not yet won the war. Despite blizzards and deadly temperatures, they are still at the camp and many more are pouring in to help. In this interview, Eryn Wise, media coordinator for the Standing Rock camp, explains the reasons behind their actions, puts the importance of Standing Rock in the context of the broader fight for indigenous rights, and tells us that they are here to stay.






Water Song: Indigenous Women And Water
by Kate Cave 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/13/water-song-indigenous-women-and-water/

Water is life and needs to be respected. For the Indigenous people in Canada, there is a reciprocal and unique relationship with water. In particular, Indigenous women share a sacred connection to the spirit of water through their role as child bearers, and have particular responsibilities to protect and nurture water.






Growthism
by Erik Lindberg 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/13/growthism/

Growthism began as a new condition of reality, became a solution, a solution so successful that it became inexorably embedded in our systems, directing and controlling them, appearing as an inescapable natural law; and then, just when it looked like we may have reached the limits of growth, Growthism  became an earnest, though idolatrous belief.  But as part of its cunning, Growthism contains each successive stage in the present, so that it is at once a condition, a solution, the end pursued by our every system, and a belief about what is good and right and natural.






From Oil Age To Soil Age
by John Thackara 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/13/from-oil-age-to-soil-age/

In 1971 a geologist called Earl Cook evaluated the amount of energy ‘captured from the environment’ in different economic systems. Cook discovered then that a modern city dweller needed about 230,000 kilocalories per day to keep body and soul together. This compared starkly to a hunter-gatherer, 10,000 years earlier, who needed about 5,000 kcal per day to get by. That gap, between simple and complex lives, has widened at an accelerating rate since Cook’s pioneering work






Monitoring The Miners: Rio Tinto, Drones And Surveillance
by Dr Binoy Kampmark 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/13/monitoring-the-miners-rio-tinto-drones-and-surveillance/

Management at the mining giant Rio Tinto have ambitions to take the technology of monitoring employees to another level – quite literally.  Proud to have been at the forefront of various technical innovations in the employment field, the recently proposed surveillance program by the company’s management caused more than just a ruffling.







Fidel’s Departure Shook Asia To The Core
by Andre Vltchek 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/13/fidels-departure-shook-asia-to-the-core/

Asia remembers. It mourns the great Cuban hero, a great African hero and an Asian hero, an internationalist, Fidel Castro.





Fidel: The Truth About His Struggle
by Dr Chandra Muzaffar 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/13/fidel-the-truth-about-his-struggle/

Over the last 17 days since the death of Fidel Castro on the 25th of November 2016, I have been trying to assess how far sections of the mainstream media (MSM) would go in their vicious campaign to denigrate and demean a leader who had defied the world’s sole military superpower just 145 kilometres from his small island –state





Is The U.S Fighting Terrorism Or Manufacturing It?
by Dr Arshad M Khan 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/13/is-the-u-s-fighting-terrorism-or-manufacturing-it/

President Obama’s final foreign policy speech at MacDill air force base in Tampa, betrayed its purpose through the venue.  The Tampa, Florida, base is home to Special Operations Command and Central Command — Special Operations playing an ever increasing role in counter terrorism






The Russians Are Hacking My Poems!!!
by Gary Corseri 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/13/the-russians-are-hacking-my-poems/

Every metaphor I write
they claim is Dostoyevsky’s!
Every simile is Tolstoy’s!
Every irony—you guessed it!
Chekhov’s!





An Open Letter To Home Minister Rajnath Singh: Pakistan, RSS And Democratic Secular India
by Shamsul Islam 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/13/an-open-letter-to-home-minister-rajnath-singh-pakistan-rss-and-democratic-secular-india/

I will end by sharing the fact that Indian Muslims have not fallen prey to criminal anti-India designs of Islam-o-fascists of Pakistan or elsewhere but flag-bearer of Hindutva politics, RSS and its juggernaut are working over-time to see that evil wish of Islam-o-fascists, to undo democratic-secular India, is fulfilled at the earliest. I hope you as Home Minister will discard anti-national ideas of RSS and join patriotic Indian forces who want to save India from all kinds of theocratic nationalisms.